A new art exhibit in Northwest Portland urges us to consider the consequences of our gadget obsessions, and calls on technology manufacturers -- Intel and Apple, among others -- to lower the human and environmental cost of their products.

Coltan is the muck-caked counterpoint to the brainier-than-thou, environmentally friendly image of the high-tech economy. The wireless world would grind to a halt without it. Coltan, once it is refined in American and European factories, becomes tantalum, a metallic element that is a superb conductor of electricity, highly resistant to heat. Tantalum powder is a vital ingredient in the manufacture of capacitors, the electronic components that control the flow of current inside miniature circuit boards. Capacitors made of tantalum can be found inside almost every laptop, pager, personal digital assistant and cell phone.

SEA Change Gallery, which is exhibiting the work, is hosting a conversation about it on Saturday evening, from 5 to 7 p.m. Gallery curator Katherine Ball tells me she invited Intel to send a representative, but that the company declined.

Intel tells me that it does use coltan in its manufacturing and is aware of the issues around it. The company said it's working to improve the situation through the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition, which issued a statement on the subject last month outlining principles for improving conditions:

1. Education: EICC has commissioned reports on key metals and mining conditions. The reports will be combined with media analysis and NGO literature to better inform member companies about the issue.

2. Stakeholder Engagement: EICC is working with experts, NGOs, governments, academics, adjacent industry organizations, and others in the electronics supply chain to learn more about the issue, and to work toward collaborative solutions.

3. Transparency: The EICC Extractives Work Group initiated an industry project in April 2009 to develop supply chain transparency, with particular focus on cobalt, tin, and tantalum. The project will attempt to identify participants in the supply chains and to obtain information from suppliers relating to conformance to the EICC Code of Conduct and other CSR programs.